Richard H. Lawrence was a member of the Groilers Club, a member of the New York Society of Amateur Photographers and later a life member of the Camera Club of New York. He was also a member of the American Photographic Society, Numismatic Society, Archaeological Institute of America, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Iconophiles Book Publishing, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He was an avid amateur photographer and was a camera man for Jacob Riis in 1887-1888.

In 1893, his print, “Court of the Myrtles, Alhambra” won a silver medal at the annual exhibition of the Society of Amateur Photographers in NYC. (p. 161 of The American amateur photographer, cited below)